This invention relates in general to communication resource management. In particular, the invention relates to a method and system for optimal radio channel management within a distributed connection and transport environment or any network having channelized resources.
In existing radio communication systems, various subsystems necessary for operation of the main system are integrated into a partitioned architecture. Such subsystems, or planes, may include an application subsystem, a services subsystem, a connections subsystem and a transport subsystem. The transport subsystem typically includes radio transport resources. The radio transport resources, otherwise known as radio channels, are allocated at the time a call is originated, and they remain allocated according to this setup throughout the duration of the call. The availability of these resources for use by other calls depends directly on the amount of active traffic being carried simultaneously by other channels.
An active call may not require transport resources at all times, however. For example, pauses between words or sentences during speech communication constitute discrete time periods where no important signals or data need be carried. As another example, a service may be active and resources are assigned but not being used, such as in the set-up phase of a call. These unused resources, which could be utilized to support more active calls, are essentially wasted during these pause periods.
Some wireline access packet switching protocols, for example, the protocol known as xe2x80x9cFrame Relay,xe2x80x9d provide for access contention and flexible reservation of resources using the concept of xe2x80x9ccommitted information rate.xe2x80x9d The frame relay protocol is typically utilized in wide area networks, such as those connected through public networks and leased lines having data transfer rates of at least 56 Kbps. Committed information rate requires a user to pre-commit to a certain average maximum data transmission rate for the duration of the communication session. The information rate refers to the average maximum transmission speed that the user utilizes over a frame relay link, and the customer may increase the transmission rate (typically in increments of 16 Kbps) through the network as the user""s port allows. The committed information rate concept, however, relates only to flexible information rate reservation and the maximization of transmission rate for the full duration of a call session. These solutions do not address the dynamic allocation of transport resources for the purpose of increasing overall utilization on a network. Furthermore, present resource reservation and allocation schemes are not effective to increase the apparent service capacity of a system.